


Better Late (Than Never)

by eriah211



Category: Primeval
Genre: Awkward Romance, Dinosaurs, Family Issues, M/M, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 03:49:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10549578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eriah211/pseuds/eriah211
Summary: Lester is having a Very Bad Day and an anomaly only makes it worse. Danny is not amused, well, maybe only a bit.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Livejournal in 2015 for Primeval Denial's Secret Santa.  
> Written for fififolle who gave the following prompts: 1) crashing on the sofa; 2) cancelled flight; 3) making up numbers (for a team); 4) superhero. I think I managed to use #1 and #2, but I tried to at least mention briefly the other prompts too.  
> Thanks to the ever wonderful fredbassett for the beta and the encouraging words.

 

“I don’t know why you bother.”  
  
Danny turned questioningly to his brother as he opened the car door.  
  
“It’s the third time this week you’ve asked Lester to come home for dinner and he always finds an excuse to say no,” Patrick said. “I think it’s obvious your flat doesn’t meet his standards.”  
  
It was not the third time, Danny thought, it was the second time that week, and once the week before that, but who was counting? He and his brother had the next day off, so he had thought it would be a good time for a relaxing dinner. Unfortunately Lester had a meeting with the Minister the next day that, who knew why, had to be held in Dublin. Probably the big idiot was there on holiday and didn’t want to come back yet, but that meant that Lester had to take a plane and spend the whole day away.  
  
“He does have to get that flight tomorrow, that’s not an excuse,” he replied, a bit stung.  
  
“So he isn’t a snob, he’s just too busy?” Patrick sporfled. “He could make a bit of an effort if he really wanted to.”  
  
“OK, I get it, you don’t like him.”  
  
Patrick snorted, but didn’t add anything else and just turned his head to stare at the streets through the window.  
  
They drove the rest of the way home in silence and Danny was grateful for that. It had been a long and tiring week and he didn’t want to have an argument with his brother right now. Since they had been reunited again, Patrick had come a long way, trying to adjust and make amends, but he had the ability to get under people’s skin and he still used it to annoy people far more often than he should.  
  
Once home, they ordered some pizza and watched an awful movie about giant centipedes coming out from the centre of the Earth that Connor would have loved. When the credits started rolling, Danny patted Patrick on the shoulder, wished him a good night and headed towards his room.  
  
It was a small flat and there was just one room, but Patrick seemed to be perfectly fine living in his brother’s sitting room. He had lived in far worse places, he had said, and a roof over his head, a bathroom, a kitchen and a sofa was a luxury he hadn’t usually had.  
  
It wasn’t as if they would have released him to live on his own, tracking anklet or not, so Patrick had been stuck with the only person who was willing to put up with him for as long as necessary. Due to his knowledge of the anomalies they had even accepted Patrick as a team member under probation and Danny was more than happy to be able to keep an eye on him 24/7. The older man still woke up sometimes at night fearing Patrick would have run away and he wouldn’t be able to find his little brother again, but then he would hear the soft snoring in the next room and he would go back to sleep, relieved.  
  
“No, I don’t like him.”  
  
Danny heard Patrick’s voice coming from his place on the sofa and it took him a moment to get what he was talking about. Patrick had an annoying habit of continuing a conversation that had stopped hours ago as if no time had passed and it could be a bit confusing.  
  
Lester, Danny realised, catching up. So he doesn’t like him. He sighed, not really surprised about it.  
  
“You still don’t know him,” Danny said, trying to make his brother understand. “The expensive suits and the attitude don’t let you see how he really is.”  
  
“Yes, I’m sure he wears a superhero outfit under that expensive clothing and in his free time he fights against the evil in the world using paper forms and snarky retorts.”  
  
Danny couldn’t help but smile at that image. Super Snark-man!  
  
“Don’t be fooled by those ties, Patrick. He can be a real badass.”  
  
“I still think you could find a better boyfriend.”  
  
“I’m not sure ‘boyfriend’ is the word I would use,” Danny replied cringing.  
  
It felt like they had got past the fuck-buddies phase some time ago, but he hadn’t wanted to give much thought to what they were now. Labels and all that stuff were damn complicated.  
  
“Good,” Patrick said. “Because I don’t think that’s the word he would use for you at all.”  
  
Patrick decided to put an end to the conversation after that and Danny heard him walk towards the bathroom.  
  
He ignored those last words and how true they had sounded and got into bed. Before he turned off the light, though, Danny checked his phone and sent a short message to Lester.

  
  
_You’ve missed a wonderful dinner date, guv._

  
  
He waited for a while and he was about to give up and turn off his phone, thinking Lester was probably already asleep, when he finally got a reply.

_Pizza and a movie, I suppose._

  
  
_Yes, but the company was awesome._

_I promise next week I will make time._

  
  
_You better. What time does the flight leave? Do you need a ride to the airport?_

 

_7 am. There is no need, thank you. A taxi will pick me up early in the morning._

  
  
_Shouldn’t you be already asleep then?_

_I was just finishing a report. I’m going to bed in a minute._  
  
_A very big and empty bed._

  
  
_That’s totally your fault. You could be here with me in a very small bed._

_Just a few metres away from your brother._

  
  
_Oh, well, no plan is perfect!_

_And that plan in particular suffers from a total lack of privacy._

  
  
_Spoilsport!_

_No matter how much I enjoy you proposing semi-public sex to me,  
  
I probably should say goodbye now, before it gets too late. _

  
  
_OK, James, see you soon!_

_Goodbye!_

 

***

 

  
_Flight delayed due to fog._

  
  
Danny saw Lester’s message when he came out of the shower the next morning and he grinned evilly. Lester wasn’t a patient man, he would probably be in an awful mood already.

  
  
_Ah, the London weather doesn’t respect anything!_

  
  
Patrick was already having breakfast when Danny walked into the kitchen after he’d got dressed. His brother usually woke up first, being the light sleeper Danny had supposed he would be. You didn’t get to live for long in the past if you couldn’t hear predators getting closer while you slept.

 

_Flight cancelled due to fog._

  
  
Danny sporfled into his orange juice when he saw the second message. Now he was sure Lester would be in a terrible mood. Patrick looked at him questioningly.  
  
“It looks like Lester isn’t going anywhere, after all,” Danny explained to him.

  
  
_Not your lucky day. Do you want me to pick you up?_

  


_No, thank you, I’m already on the taxi rank of the terminal._  
  
_I will go straight to the office, I don’t want to spoil your free day._

  
  
_OK, guv. Try not to chop too many heads off at work!_

 

  
  
They didn’t have to go to the ARC that day so Danny took his time to finish breakfast. Patrick, impatient as ever, finished it in a minute and went back to the sitting room to turn on the TV.  
  
Danny hadn’t really thought about what they could do on their day off, but staying at home definitely seemed like a waste of time. Unless, of course, they stayed to clean the place, something that really needed to be done, but that wasn’t a very appealing plan.  
  
“They’re talking about the fog in the news,” Patrick said from the sitting room. “All flights have been cancelled and there’s a big traffic jam in the M4 because of a truck. The driver lost control and now the truck is blocking the whole road!”  
  
Danny’s phone started ringing as he walked out of the kitchen. He was surprised to see somebody was calling from the ARC.  
  
“Sorry to bother you in your day off, Danny, but we need reinforcements,” Becker said as soon as he picked up the phone.  
  
“Well, good morning to you too, sunshine!” Danny replied teasingly. “What’s the big problem this time?”  
  
“An anomaly has opened in the Crane Meadows, in Cranford, and there have been weird animal sightings by the road near that place, but all the area is covered by a damn thick fog and it’s going to be hell to search it all, we need all the available hands we can get,” Becker explained.  
  
“That’s near the airport, right?” Danny asked with a bad feeling. “What kind of animal sightings?”  
  
“Some people stuck in a traffic jam have posted photos on twitter of what looks like a big, hairy animal, the size of a car, maybe,” Becker said. “Jenny’s going to have to work hard to bury this. Lester isn’t going to be happy about it.”  
  
“I’m sure he isn’t,” Danny said.  
  
It definitely wasn’t Lester’s lucky day.

 

***

 

 

“Do we know where Lester is exactly?” Danny asked when he met Becker and his team at the site of the accident in the M4.  
  
He had talked to Lester on the phone and knew that he was stuck in that traffic jam, but that could be either near or far from the area of the sightings.  
  
 “Yes, we have his GPS coordinates. He’s in a taxi not far away from here,” Becker answered. “Jenny’s been talking to him a minute ago and said he’s fine.”  
  
Jenny was already busy talking to the truck driver, who was a bit shaken but unharmed, trying to convince him that there was nothing weird about the huge animal that had crossed the road in front of him and had caused the accident.  
  
“You mean he’s annoyed as hell, right?” Danny replied.  
  
“That too,” Becker said.  
  
The lights of the ambulance and the police car helped a bit to improve the visibility, but despite that the cars and the road disappeared a few metres away in a white blur. From there on, the lights of the cars stuck on the road were the only thing that could be seen clearly, but the chorus of angry honking that sounded occasionally reminded him there were a lot of angry and impatient people out there.  
  
Coming out of the fog that also covered the side of the road, Connor and Abby walked towards them followed by two soldiers.  
  
“We’ve found the anomaly and closed it,” Connor said.  
  
“Have they found the creature?” Abby asked.  
  
“Ryan and his team are searching the land on the other side of the road to see if they can find a track,” Becker explained. “We’re going to take this other side and comb the forest ver-“  
  
The distant noise of a collision and broken glass, followed by a panicked female scream, stopped Becker’s words.  
  
“Or we could just follow the screams...” Danny suggested as he started walking between the idling cars towards the noise.

 

 

***

 

It wasn’t difficult for them to find the right place. A small red car with a big dent in the front door seemed to have been shoved to one side and the scared woman inside insisted that ‘a monster’ had come out of the fog and attacked her car.  
  
Some people had come out of the nearer cars when they had seen the soldiers arrive and they told more or less the same story. The driver that had been right behind the red car had even managed to see where the big creature had run to after the attack.  
  
“The lady in the car had been impatiently honking the horn a few times right before the animal appeared. Maybe that attracted it?” the man suggested nervously.  
  
“Well, maybe that frightened it,” Abby replied.  
  
Jenny was going to have a lot of work with these frightened people, Danny thought, looking at the scared faces around him.  
  
And then, as calm as if he was strolling through the atrium in the ARC, Lester appeared from behind a pair of nervous civilians and walked towards them.  
  
“Becker, what’s the situation?” Lester said right away. “Danny, Patrick, aren’t you supposed to be off duty today?”  
  
“And aren’t you supposed to know better, guv?” Danny replied.  
  
He grabbed Lester by the arm and took him a few steps away from the crowd.  “What are you doing out of your car? You know damn well it could be dangerous!”  
  
After a moment of surprise Lester frowned and freed his arm from Danny’s grip.  
  
“Thank you very much for your concern, Mr Quinn, but I’m not a child,” he replied pompously. “I only got out of the car the moment I saw the team walking along the road, I didn’t decide to go wandering alone to try to catch whatever creature we have to face today with my bare hands.”  
  
Danny snorted. “That would be quite a sight, considering the size of the creature we’re looking for. Did you see it?”  
  
“No, I have only heard the noise,” Lester answered, looking at the big dent in the red car.  
  
Becker ordered his men to make sure everybody came back to their vehicles while Abby, and Patrick started checking the ground on the side of the road, trying to find the creature’s track.  
  
“It’s big, but it looks like there is only one,” the young captain said as he came closer to them. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to find its tracks on wet ground.”  
  
“Ever the optimist, captain,” Lester replied.  
  
“Abby’s an excellent tracker, Lester,” Danny said. “She’ll find it in the wink of an eye, with my brother’s help.”  
  
That was Becker’s time to snort. Patrick and Becker hadn’t got off on the right foot, but the captain seemed to have left all behind. Most of the time, at least. Last week, for example, with the excuse of needing one more player for a friendly match, Becker had invited Patrick to join in the ARC workers’ rugby team. Considering how battered Patrick had been when he’d come back home, Danny doubted the match had been very friendly, but his brother hadn’t complained; on the contrary, he had seemed quite content. When Danny had seen Becker’s equally battered face the next day, he decided to say nothing at all about it.  
  
“The anomaly has been located?” Lester asked.  
  
“Yes, it’s been located and closed and Ryan’s team is sear-“  
  
“We found it!” Abby said cheerfully, crouched beside a big tree.  
  
“It’s heading south!” Patrick added. “At least it looks like it’s decided to move away from the road.”  
  
“Told you!” Danny said, grinning.  
  
Lester and Becker rolled their eyes almost at the same time, to Danny’s amusement.  
  
“Now it’s time for us to chase the creature...” Danny said as Becker gathered his men, “... and for you to go back to that taxi.”  
  
“I’m not in the slightest bit interested in running wildly through a muddy forest, that’s why I hired you,” Lester said, waving his hand dismissively. “But I don’t see the point in waiting any longer inside a taxi, I’ll find Jenny and make sure that-“  
  
“She is in the site of the accident with Connor, quite a way off,” Danny replied. “You can’t walk alone all the way there, we still aren’t sure where the creature is.”  
  
“It’s heading south, as they said.” Lester said. “I’m going the opposite way.”  
  
“Yes, supposedly,” Danny replied, not giving an inch.  
  
“I could go with him,” Patrick said, coming out of nowhere. “Abby is perfectly capable of tracking the creature and I’m not even allowed to use a gun so I’m of no use on the chase.”  
  
For a moment, both Danny and Lester stared at him, not knowing what to say.  
  
“You can trust me,” Patrick added. “I’ll take him there safely.”  
  
Patrick’s face was emotionless, but Danny knew his answer was important to him. It was all about trust in the end.  
  
“OK,” he agreed. “But be careful, both of you.”  
  
“I would say the same to you, but I know it would fall on deaf ears,” Lester replied. “So just try not to get yourself killed. Or any of the others, for that matter.”  
  
“I’ll do my best, guv,” Danny replied, smirking.  
  
“How is that I don’t find that reassuring?” Lester said as he started walking away. “Let’s go, Patrick, I have already lost enough time today.”  
  
Unimpressed, Patrick just rolled his eyes and then followed him.  
  
Danny joined the rest of the team by the side of the road and soon they were on their way. They had radioed Ryan’s team to let them know they had found a trace and they would call them if help was needed. Ryan had told them they might be lucky and be right about it being just one creature on the loose since they had found nothing on the other side so far.  
  
Despite the thick fog, it really wasn’t difficult to track the creature on the wet ground, especially considering its size. They still weren’t sure about what kind of animal they were looking for, but the witnesses’ descriptions and the blurry photos had told them it was four-legged and hairy, and it was obviously big and strong if it could attack a car like that.  
  
They had been walking for a few minutes when Becker, who had been regularly checking the compass, cursed and told one of his men to call Ryan’s team immediately.  
  
“What’s the matter, Becks?” Danny asked. “Do we need reinforcements already?”  
  
“No, I just thought they might be already going back to the site of the accident,” Becker replied. “It looks like the creature has turned around, it’s now heading north.”  
  
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

 

***

 

They warned Jenny the creature could be going back and they followed the tracks as fast as possible. Ryan’s team was already on their way back when they called them, which was good news, but Jenny had told them Patrick and Lester still hadn’t arrived, which was not good news at all.  
  
Danny cursed internally many times while he hurried after the creature’s track. Lester and his brother should have arrived at the accident site by now and given the kind of day Lester was having, Danny couldn’t stop thinking about the many possible dangerous scenarios.  
  
The uncertainty didn’t last too long, fortunately. Not much later, Jenny called to tell them that Ryan’s team had located the creature, which had tried to go back to the anomaly site, and that Patrick and Lester were finally there, safe and sound, after a minor incident.  
  
Once he made sure they wouldn’t need him any more, Danny headed to the accident site while Becker and the rest went to join Ryan’s team to help them sedate and transport the creature back to its own time.  
  
When he got there, though, he wasn’t expecting the sight of a muddy Patrick and an equally muddy and very annoyed Lester just standing by Jenny’s car.  
  
“I have to get a breakdown lorry or something similar to move the creature,” Jenny explained to him when he got closer. “They,” she added pointing at the muddy pair, “aren’t allowed inside my car, I have just had it cleaned this week. They’ll have to go back in yours.”  
  
She walked away, already talking on the phone with somebody else, and Danny turned to face Patrick and Lester, trying very hard not to laugh.  
  
“Well, well, what a sight!” Danny said. “What the hell happened?”  
  
Patrick snorted and muttered something under his breath and Lester looked even more annoyed than before.  
  
“What happened was that a dumb driver decided to get out of his car to make a video with his phone and when he walked into the forest I had to go and kick his arse back to the car, because he insisted on it,” Patrick said, pointing accusingly at Lester.  
  
“And then the creature came out of nowhere and I had to throw your brother to the ground to get him out of its way,” Lester continued, ignoring the last part. “Which resulted in both of us rolling over muddy ground and a very stupid and scared civilian running towards his car.”  
  
 “I told you we should have left the idiot on his own,” Patrick muttered.  
  
“Did the creature attack you?” Danny asked, looking closely at both of them. “Are you harmed?”  
  
“My suit is ruined, but we are fine,” Lester answered casually. “I think the creature didn’t find us very interesting and it just went on its way, fortunately for us.”  
  
“Well, that seems to have been your first stroke of luck of the day,” Danny replied. “But it could have gone very wrong.”  
  
“I told him to wait next to the cars on the road,” Patrick said to Danny, trying to justify himself. “But he followed me into the trees. He doesn’t listen at all!”  
  
“Yes, I know, he can be very stubborn,” Danny agreed.  
  
Lester raised an eyebrow, slightly offended at that, and Danny felt the urge to kiss his sour expression away, but he wasn’t sure Lester would approve of such things as kissing in public, especially in front of his colleagues.  
  
“C’mon, I’ll drive you home,” he said instead.  
  
Since the creature incursion seemed to be almost resolved and the road was about to open to the traffic again, Lester agreed without a complaint. He talked briefly with Jenny and then got inside Danny’s car trying to touch as little as possible. Danny drove away immediately, before all the impatient drivers still stuck in the traffic jam could get out.  
  
“I think I’m going to take the rest of the day off too,” Lester said a few minutes later. “That’s probably the time it’s going to take me to get all this mud off me anyway.”  
  
“You could have lunch with us later, if you want,” Patrick suddenly said from the back seat.  
  
Well, that was a hell of a surprise, Danny thought. Lester seemed to feel the same way because he just stared ahead speechless for a minute before answering.  
  
“Well, I have to go home to change and make a few calls...”  
  
Here we go, Danny thought, a fourth ‘no’ to add to the list.  
  
“... but I would love to, thank you,” Lester finally added to Danny’s surprise. “As long as lunch doesn’t consist of pizza leftovers, of course.”  
  
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Danny teased. “I’ll buy something fresh and tasty.”  
  
“Don’t ever call me that,” Lester replied, drily.  
  
“Yes, please. Don’t,” Patrick agreed.  
  
“Honey, then? Baby?” Danny suggested to a horrified Lester.  
  
Danny heard a choking sound behind him and saw Patrick’s equally horrified face in the rear-view mirror. That lunch was going to be fun, Danny thought, and he couldn’t stop himself from laughing loudly as he drove along the deserted road back to London.

 

  
-END-


End file.
